Change Directory in Windows Batch Script

Based on some other answers I found, I can loop through available drive labels. However, I can't seem to change to that drive:

for /f "skip=1 delims=" %%x in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption') do ( %%x dir ) 

Which gives me:

PS C:\> .\something.bat C:\>for /F "skip=1 delims=" %x in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption') do ( %x dir ) C:\>( : dir ) The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free C:\>( : dir ) The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect. Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free C:\>( : dir ) The device is not ready. Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free C:\>( dir ) Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 9CE0-91A0 Directory of C:\ 07/14/2018 09:54 AM 1,586 compact-all.bat 06/25/2018 01:03 PM <JUNCTION> Documents and Settings [C:\Users] 07/14/2018 08:03 AM <DIR> Fraps 06/25/2018 01:07 PM <DIR> Intel 06/25/2018 02:18 PM <DIR> NVIDIA 04/11/2018 05:38 PM <DIR> PerfLogs 07/13/2018 08:32 AM <DIR> Program Files 07/13/2018 04:56 PM <DIR> Program Files (x86) 06/25/2018 02:12 PM <DIR> Python27 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 7,404 result.txt 07/14/2018 12:26 PM 83 something.bat 06/25/2018 01:08 PM <DIR> Users 06/30/2018 02:19 PM <DIR> Windows 3 File(s) 9,073 bytes 10 Dir(s) 84,364,111,872 bytes free PS C:\> 

But what I want is it to go to drive c:, d:, etc. and run a command.

I know normally I could do something like

dir %%x 

but I'm making a script to compress (compact) the contents of every drive, but it doesn't seem to take the parameter correctly as it doesn't go through all the files when I do:

compact d: 

which only affect the root of d:

versus

d: compact 

which affects every file and directory on d:

2 Answers

Change to Drive Letter

To change to a specific drive letter while the command prompt directory is using a different drive letter than the one you need to change to, simply use the /D parameter with the CD command (e.g. CD /D <DriveLetter>:) to change to a different drive letter before running proceeding commands.

Delims

You should omit using the delims=" in the FOR loop as that tells it that space is not a delimiter which is not what you want to prevent that cr/cr/lf issue as per the LotPings comment.

• FOR /?

   delims=xxx - specifies a delimiter set. This replaces the default delimiter set of space and tab. 

Since it states the default delimiter set of space and tab when you put delims=" just like that with the ending double quote after the equal sign =", that tells it there are no delimiters now.

Compact

Since Compact runs against files in the directory without specifying the path in an argument, if applicable, you can first CD /D <Letter>: and then run Compact /C to compact all files in a directory, or Compact /C /S to compact all files and folders recursively in the directory.

Batch Script

for /f "skip=1" %%x in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption') do ( CD /D %%x Compact /C /S <Next or other command> ) 

Note: The drive letter is listed in a <letter>: format e.g. H:. So CD /D H: works just fine. You will obviously add the \ to the end of the iterated %%x i.e. %%x\ if you need to append a path to use a full path (%%x\folder\path) as a command argument e.g. dir %%x\folder\path.

Further Resources

• CD

   Key /D : change the current DRIVE in addition to changing folder. 

• Compact

  Key /C Compress the specified files. Directories will be marked so that files added afterward will be compressed. /S Perform the specified operation on files in the given directory and all subdirectories. Default "dir" is the current directory. 

• I need a .bat for compact.exe and ignoring file types?

However, I can't seem to change to that drive

Use the following batch file (test.cmd):

@echo off setlocal enabledelayedexpansion rem skip=1 to remove the header rem findstr to remove blank lines for /f "skip=1" %%d in ('wmic logicaldisk get caption ^| findstr /r /v "^$"') do ( cd /d %%d\ dir ) endlocal 

Notes:

• Replace dir with the command you want to run on the root of each drive.

Further Reading

• An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line | SS64.com
• Windows CMD Commands (categorized) - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• CD Change Directory - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• Command Redirection, Pipes - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• Findstr - Search for strings - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• For - Loop through command output - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• Quotes, Escape Characters, Delimiters - Windows CMD - SS64.com
• WMIC - Windows Management - Windows CMD - SS64.com